Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and I am not making any money off this silly fanfiction. ~Gypsyn

chapter 1

'I have to hurry.'

Inuyasha's pace was unmatched as he followed the faintest of scents through the woods. There was no footpath even though Inuyasha's prey and his precious cargo had kept as low to the ground as possible. The demon had only occasionally jumped from tree to tree, avoiding thorn bushes and questionably high grasses that would have captured more of its scent.

Inuyasha now followed those footsteps, careful not to let a single detail escape his nose or his eyes. High above him, he could hear the others trying to keep up. Sango and Miroku flew on Kirara's back searching from the skies. Shippo had branched off in bird form keeping a lookout. But now that they all knew he had the scent and was gaining at last, they stayed close. This hunt was coming to an end.

'I have to hurry.'

When he had woken up at the crack of dawn this morning, nothing could have prepared him for the jarring discovery he was about to make. And that was, their group was short one miko.

'Huh. Hadn't she been up late last night studying?' he wondered when he first woke up, looking around and stretching. Strange she'd be up so early after a late night, But maybe she had just gone to get water or to use the bushes. However, when he jumped down from his branch and scrutinized her sleeping bag out of caution he noticed her scent was not as fresh as he expected it to be.

Shippo was still there undisturbed but Kagome had unmistakably been gone for most of the night. Maybe five or six hours. Which meant she'd gone to bed last night at around midnight... And then for some bizarre reason just got back up again and snuck out of camp. Why? They hadn't had any serious fights in ages and Kagome had only just gotten BACK from visiting her family two days ago. Usually, she waited at least a week or two before asking to go back.

Sneaking off he could see her doing, but only as an absolute last resort... And if she had indeed snuck away why hadn't he woken up like he usually did? Another thing that bothered him. She hadn't wandered around camp when she got up. there just seemed to be a straight trail towards the forest. She took nothing with her except the jewel shards. Even her shoes were right where she had left them at bed time. And that in and of itself was a huge red flag. She never left camp without her shoes on.

Inuyasha walked to the edges of camp towards the forest trying to figure out which direction she had gone in. He followed her scent closely and then at the treeline... He found a faint scent that chilled him to the core. Naraku's scent. The second it registered exactly what that meant he lost it.

Everyone else in camp jerked awake violently as he called her name in a panicked voice and took to the trees to search for her.

"Kagome!?" "Kagome!" "KAGOME!"

Kagome had been missing most of the night. Taken into these deep woods for some unknown purpose. He had little and sometimes even no scent to follow. But whoever took her had underestimated his ability and his determination. So what if there was no scent? He could track for awhile without it.

The scent would backtrack a ways and converge on distraction scents? That might fool a dog but never a dog demon. Rivers and Thorns? No problem. Especially not while The thought of Kagome calling for him in fear drove him to the edge.

'I have to hurry.'

She had to be in trouble. Sure she had been kidnapped before, and sometimes she pulled her wild card powers out of the bag and astonished everyone... But judging from her scent at the base she'd most likely been gone for 6 hours. An enemy could do a lot in that time. This search had dragged it out to seven hours so far, And he knew better than to trust Kagome's life with her unstable miko powers. They weren't reliable.

The trail was getting stronger and with it came the familiar salty scent of tears and the bitter copper smell of blood. This was probably the area where she had woken up and struggled against her captor.

'Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay...' his brain chanted as he bolted forward.

He heard the others cry out in dismay up above him almost as though they were in pain. He feared that they'd already seen what he could smell.

More blood just up ahead.

As he jumped through the last of the brush into the clearing, his eyes grew wide with alarm and he slammed to a stop as fast as possible. When he did he looked up at a flickering opal wall of light that shifted between blue, pink and white in front of him. He stared at the light with surprise as it rippled.

'A barrier?'

He focused beyond the wall of energy and the world stopped.

Red. Everything was painted dark red. And at the center of the barrier was the tiny crumpled form of a girl with black hair.

He stared at the scene with numb terror. Everything went silent.

Blood covered the clearing and her. It drenched her hair and her tattered clothes. It was splattered all over the trees and rocks and small pools of it were forming under her broken body. He couldn't see her face for the mess of tangled black hair. She was laying still on her side curled up tight around herself. Very still.

"Kagome?" he whispered, barely able to force the name from his lips at all. To his shock and surprise, the barrier flared brighter And dulled again, as if it was acknowledging him.

Hope flared to life inside of him.

"KAGOME!" he shouted now.

The barrier flared up even brighter at his voice. He felt something almost like heat pour off its surface and pulled away not daring to touch it just yet.

When the light died down again he took a moment to breathe and think, then he noticed something else.

The blood around him wasn't ALL Kagome's. It smelled like demon blood. Now that he thought about it, he realized he must have been truly panicked to have thought for even a second Kagome could have bled that much dead OR alive. He took a steadying breath through his mouth, trying to ignore the thick scent of blood for a moment. He took one more breath to calm himself and then let himself really smell what had happened.

Under the scent of blood, the more complex scents started to slowly come to him. First and foremost, he noticed Naraku's scent. Most likely from the blood of the demon who had taken her.

He looked around much more carefully now and realized there were shards of a broken sword embedded in the trees...bits of demon gore, bones, and pieces of samyosho all around the clearing as well.

Had Kagome..? He was in awe But at the same time... This newly found power was terrifying. He wasn't sure if it could understand that he was here to help. True he could have broken the barrier with his sword but... He was certain this was Kagome's barrier. And she was wounded. What would happen to her if he forced his way through? Maybe nothing. Or maybe it would weaken her even more. If he could avoid the sword, he wanted to.

But if it was Kagome's barrier then maybe...

He hesitantly reached out and pressed his claws against the barrier meeting a solid surface. When he felt no pain, his fingertips then his palm soon followed. A small relief filled him.

It was warm as flesh and solid as a brick wall. He pushed gently against it. But it didn't give in the slightest. Instead, he felt a faint probing energy spark beneath his fingertips and brush against his aura. He explored with his own aura testing the feel of the barrier.

The energy felt like Kagome's... Comforting and warm. And yet... Just behind the initial warmth was a strangely disjointed feeling. Like something was very very wrong. He looked down at her broken form on the ground. He already knew something was wrong.

"Kagome I-It's me, Inuyasha. I-" He hesitated, his ears wilting in shame. He'd almost said 'I came to save you.' But that would be wrong. It was far too late to save Kagome. She was in a bloody heap on the ground. He had utterly failed her. She'd saved herself.

"I came to get you out of here," he amended, fighting his self-loathing and shame to the best of his ability. Even if he hadn't been able to save her she still needed him to get her somewhere safe. He could hate himself after she was better.

As if he had uttered some secret password, the barrier flickered brighter, almost blindingly so, and melted away before him. He carefully walked through what had been so solid just a second ago.

And then the real scent of her blood hit him hard.

"Kagome?!"

She made no response. Even when he hit the ground beside her and scooped her up in his arms. Her body was cold and limp. She was barely breathing.

He gritted his teeth and held her close as he leaped from the clearing. The others soon far behind him.

'I need to hurry...'

(-)

"Inuyasha."

The half demon jerked himself from his memories and looked up to see Sango looming over him with a sympathetic expression.

"Inuyasha, Kaede-Obabba says she wants to talk to you now."

Inuyasha shook off the haunting memory. He couldn't think about that moment right now. He couldn't afford to be weak now when Kagome needed him most.

"Got it," he answered gruffly.